Episode55
Say Hello to Oros, the Intedimensional Amoeba We picked things up with the Accidental Reaver and friends destroyed and the two Reaver ships vectoring off in different directions. The tracker for the Nexus-bound Reaver went dark so it was assumed to have left the system and become someone else's problem. A warning to the Alliance was sent after the other Reaver entered the Gate and also fled the system. So much for the Reaver problem! With only two active party members, the decisiveness was palpable (this logger assumes as much) and a plan was hatched to acquire the extra-dimensional alien intelligence that Rhino-girl-bounty-hunter (with an easy name that this logger has gapped on) Campbell was hunting. We knew where it was thanks to Barnabus so the party departed with nary a concern of things like sneaky bounty hunters or reaver lich-dragons. Predictably, Rhino-Girl secretly stowed away on the hull of the T-Hound and only revealed herself when we located the alien intelligence. Using Pete's new 'Broad Spectrum Organ' we reached out to the alien intelligence who responded with a simple question: "are you the steward?" Rhino-Girl was impressed that we could speak to it but not so much that she didn't immediately detach and attempt to catch it in her custom-built alien intelligence containment net - there were millions of chips on the line! Oz (who rejoined the party a bit late after dealing with some Necrite trouble - more on that later) attempted to talk her down but she was dead-set on catching it so initiative ensued! In true form all of the PC's abandoned the bridge immediately which perhaps wasn't such a great idea in hindsight as the ship was rocked with 24 micro-missiles devastating the sectional armour with Acid 96 and leaving the T-Hound dangerously close to spilling all of our precious belongings, followers, pets, robots, etc. into space. Kiwi super-translocated to Rihno-Girl and started doing his sucker punchy-thing to little effect due to her extreme racial armour. Pete headed for the Airlock, ready to exit in heroic fashion. The Alien began screaming in fear when Rihno-girl tried to capture it which crystallized Oz's 'wait and see' attitude into action. He used the organ to call the alien intelligence and then headed to the cargo bay to let it in. When the Alien heard the organ call it folded space and reached the T-Hound in a heartbeat where it then attached itself to the hull and began to spread over the surface. As soon as it attached to the ship, Rihno-girl gave up and admitted defeat. We quickly made a deal for information which Oz tried to haggle down but rolled three natural ones on four rolls so that went nowhere and we accepted her price. She told us that it was going to bond with the ship and might take a few days after which the ship would have new abilities. That the alien was part of a small group that had come through with a 'steward' who was supposed to be minding them. She had caught six others before this one but did not know the precise location of the Steward other than it was in Kovinus space somewhere. The Steward was a more advanced form that had other powers including some kind of light-based ability. That was all we got out of her before the Alien spread over the ship and formed into a hard brown cocoon-like shell. The Alien turned out to be more like a space amoeba that could attach itself to large objects (it ignores small ones) as a way to learn about other dimensions before returning home to complete it's 3000-year right of passage. It was actually rather smart and after we figured out how to emote with it also rather friendly. Over the next day we sung to it, told it stories, projected 'happy thoughts' at it, and generally made it feel welcome as it bonded with us and the T-Hound. When it was done the cocoon broke away and a shining new life-form was born. The T-Hound was now alive and had a new name - Oros! Oros was a remarkable being who lived to assimilate information of all kinds. In doing so, it literally becomes more powerful which in turn makes the ship more powerful. Here's a breakdown of what Oros can do (details on the Tenacious Hound page): * Pilot/Tech/Constructor * Use skills/spells/items * Communicate verbally and telepathically (with spell) * Increased AC/DC * Increased PR * Spell Nodes on the ship * FTL in gravity wells * No 'gate daze' when travelling through a gate * For every 100 levels of skills/spells it learns it increases in power As is often the way with new friends, no sooner than had we met then we were forced to consider saying goodbye as our mission would take us through a gate where we'd have to leave the ship behind. Oros was very uncomfortable leaving us so we spent a day shaking off the effects of sleep deprivation and teaching it skills which also bumped it up a level. We left off considering staying for a day or two longer to further improve its chances of surviving without us while we retrieve the Star. The doom clock continues to count down (34 days now?) so we cannot take too long but we need to ensure that Oros - and all of our followers, pets, robots, etc. - will be safe without us. Excerpt from Oz's personal log: Nero continues to grow in power. Ever since he consumed the Reaver metal he's been showing increased aggressiveness and a hunger for things beyond the raw salvage he'd previously been content with. Today, he decided to eat the 'dripping ichorous reaver railgun' that I had stowed in my quarters. This is noteworthy for a couple of reasons: 1) he doesn't usually eat things without me offering them, and 2) he's developing a taste for Reaver material. More concerning, I had to calm him down for fear that he would become aggressive and hurt himself or others. If I hadn't known of that 'special' spot just above his 7th eye things might have been very different... Space Junk Salvage (the stuff we bought from Captain Barnabus): * Reaver Com module ** location of 16 Zombie planets in our galaxy (hacked thanks to Pete's epic Cryptography) * Case of Zombie Toxin (green vials) * 80k Mystic Salvage * Lots more salvage of less interest 33 Generic 11 Mystic for the logger . Back to Space Junk LogCategory:Space Junk